Holy See to the UN: Refugees must be protected as they flee

, Nov 9, 2007 / 12:40 pm (CNA).- Yesterday afternoon the Holy See’s representative to the UN, Archbishop Celestino Migliore, spoke to the General Assembly about his concern for the dangers that refugees face when they have to flee their homes.

The Assembly is meeting to consider the report of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees.

Archbishop Migliore expressed his concern over the plight of people forced by various causes to leave their homes, "especially when they move across frontiers of countries or regions with rigid migration policies.”

“Concerns increase when doubts arise regarding the applicability of existing international instruments, or when no legal instruments of protection exists,” the prelate said.

To remedy the situation, the archbishop called for urgent consideration of “a coordinated international effort, with a view to seeking greater clarity in existing legal instruments of protection or, if need be, to establishing new ones."